MacBook Pro for college or Windows?

Ive always been a windows guy for like forever. I currently bought a Microsoft Surface pro 4 i5 model with the type cover. Comes out to around $1150 with a sleeve as well. I can get a New MacBook pro 13 inch for $1190 at best buy. Ive been going back and forth between both systems. On one hand I like the fact the surface has a pen I can write notes with but the simplicity of what Apple brings id making me think of a MacBook. I would only be using this device in school for notes and papers since my main device is a gaming windows laptop.

Given your usage the SP4; the Mac won't bring anything much to the table barring the user experience. The SP4 to seems the perfect tool given it can multirole; tablet, notebook & digital notepad, the Macbook being solely a notebook, however the battery life will be longer than the Surface. The SP4`s downside is the additional complexity and maintenance of Windows.

I think the Surface Pro is a great machine for college so long as you plan on using the stylus to take notes. I can't imagine trying to take notes with only a keyboard anymore. As mentioned, the SP4 is considerably more portable than the MBP so there is that to consider.

The only question I'd ask is how stable the SP4 has been for you, and what kind of battery life you have been getting because those two things are wildly variable it seems.

Ive always been a windows guy for like forever. I currently bought a Microsoft Surface pro 4 i5 model with the type cover. Comes out to around $1150 with a sleeve as well. I can get a New MacBook pro 13 inch for $1190 at best buy. Ive been going back and forth between both systems. On one hand I like the fact the surface has a pen I can write notes with but the simplicity of what Apple brings id making me think of a MacBook. I would only be using this device in school for notes and papers since my main device is a gaming windows laptop.

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Stick with the SP4, MS is at it's finest hour and if it runs anything like my SP2 it's also reliable.
What I will say is if you have not done so already make sure you claim the 15gb for the Onedrive (assuming your using this) as it may help with keeping your college stuff in the could (backup). https://preview.onedrive.com/bonus/

I don't know if this is useful to you but in 2011 I was fed up of Windows laptops, bloatware, design, materials and driver issues etc and I decided to buy a 13" MBP which I bootcamped into windows.
The mac experience is good and when using it for leisure it takes some beating (exclude gaming), the only two issues I had was with the trackpad optimisation and the fan when in bootcamp and that's it.

If you do go Mac setup bootcamp just in case you need Windows; the MS ecosystem works really well and Onenote is something else (in a good way).

Stick with the SP4, MS is at it's finest hour and if it runs anything like my SP2 it's also reliable.
What I will say is if you have not done so already make sure you claim the 15gb for the Onedrive (assuming your using this) as it may help with keeping your college stuff in the could (backup). https://preview.onedrive.com/bonus/

I don't know if this is useful to you but in 2011 I was fed up of Windows laptops, bloatware, design, materials and driver issues etc and I decided to buy a 13" MBP which I bootcamped into windows.
The mac experience is good and when using it for leisure it takes some beating (exclude gaming), the only two issues I had was with the trackpad optimisation and the fan when in bootcamp and that's it.

If you do go Mac setup bootcamp just in case you need Windows; the MS ecosystem works really well and Onenote is something else (in a good way).

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Yeah as much as I am a windows guy that's why I am considering a Macbook. You can do boot camp. I guess I'll play around with this for a few days and decide. One factor is battery life. I need those device to last at least 4 hours.

Yeah as much as I am a windows guy that's why I am considering a Macbook. You can do boot camp. I guess I'll play around with this for a few days and decide. One factor is battery life. I need those device to last at least 4 hours.

Yep 4 hours should be a no-brainer. What I would want from the SP4 is a minimum of 6 and minimal standby drain (which means you can go 4 hours even if you haven't charged to 100% recently or the device has been sitting in your bag all weekend).

Ive always been a windows guy for like forever. I currently bought a Microsoft Surface pro 4 i5 model with the type cover. Comes out to around $1150 with a sleeve as well. I can get a New MacBook pro 13 inch for $1190 at best buy. Ive been going back and forth between both systems. On one hand I like the fact the surface has a pen I can write notes with but the simplicity of what Apple brings id making me think of a MacBook. I would only be using this device in school for notes and papers since my main device is a gaming windows laptop.

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Your mileage may vary, some settling of contents may have occurred during shipping and handling, objects in the mirror are closer than the appear.

OK, disclaimers over with, I'm going to pull on my academic hood. I just retired from the IT department of a major university in the northeast. A walk through the student center shows an awful lot of glowing white Apple logos, and even though my particular purview was Unix, I used Macs exclusively. The fact is that colleges are malware hot zones. Viruses and trojans and worms, oh my. They're everywhere.

Now it's possible to install a trojan on your Mac, but it's very hard to be infected by a virus. In fact, there are no Mac viruses in the wild. For that reason (to say nothing of Apple's legendary reliability), I'd recommend a Mac.

Ive always been a windows guy for like forever. I currently bought a Microsoft Surface pro 4 i5 model with the type cover. Comes out to around $1150 with a sleeve as well. I can get a New MacBook pro 13 inch for $1190 at best buy. Ive been going back and forth between both systems. On one hand I like the fact the surface has a pen I can write notes with but the simplicity of what Apple brings id making me think of a MacBook. I would only be using this device in school for notes and papers since my main device is a gaming windows laptop.

Click to expand...

Your mileage may vary, some settling of contents may have occurred during shipping and handling, objects in the mirror are closer than the appear.

OK, disclaimers over with, I'm going to pull on my academic hood. I just retired from the IT department of a major university in the northeast. A walk through the student center shows an awful lot of glowing white Apple logos, and even though my particular purview was Unix, I used Macs exclusively. The fact is that colleges are malware hot zones. Viruses and trojans and worms, oh my. They're everywhere.

Now it's possible to install a trojan on your Mac, but it's very hard to be infected by a virus. In fact, there are no Mac viruses in the wild. For that reason (to say nothing of Apple's legendary reliability), I'd recommend a Mac.

I think the Surface Pro is a great machine for college so long as you plan on using the stylus to take notes. I can't imagine trying to take notes with only a keyboard anymore. As mentioned, the SP4 is considerably more portable than the MBP so there is that to consider.

The only question I'd ask is how stable the SP4 has been for you, and what kind of battery life you have been getting because those two things are wildly variable it seems.

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I just got the device a few days ago and I'm not sure . Have been working so haven't had the time to do stimulate an average day at school. I just need the device to last 4 hours at least with half brightness. The one other thing that is compelling me to a MacBook is because of the stellar battery life that I've heard so much about .

As far as learning a new os my semester doesn't start until March so I have some time to learn it.

Ive always been a windows guy for like forever. I currently bought a Microsoft Surface pro 4 i5 model with the type cover. Comes out to around $1150 with a sleeve as well. I can get a New MacBook pro 13 inch for $1190 at best buy. Ive been going back and forth between both systems. On one hand I like the fact the surface has a pen I can write notes with but the simplicity of what Apple brings id making me think of a MacBook. I would only be using this device in school for notes and papers since my main device is a gaming windows laptop.

Click to expand...

Your mileage may vary, some settling of contents may have occurred during shipping and handling, objects in the mirror are closer than the appear.

OK, disclaimers over with, I'm going to pull on my academic hood. I just retired from the IT department of a major university in the northeast. A walk through the student center shows an awful lot of glowing white Apple logos, and even though my particular purview was Unix, I used Macs exclusively. The fact is that colleges are malware hot zones. Viruses and trojans and worms, oh my. They're everywhere.

Now it's possible to install a trojan on your Mac, but it's very hard to be infected by a virus. In fact, there are no Mac viruses in the wild. For that reason (to say nothing of Apple's legendary reliability), I'd recommend a Mac.

Stick with your SP4, its' much more mobile then the 13" MBP. Plus as you mention, you're a windows guy. There's no added benefit from switching platforms.

I was using my SP3, this past week, as I was away, and as usual, it performed great (until the battery in my pen died ) That battery lasted a very, very long time - I knew it was dying.

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The two factors mainly making me think hard about getting a MacBook is I have an iPhone and the continuity or whatever Apple calls it is appealing and the battery life is rated around 9-12 hours . From my experience Apple is usually spot on with the battery life estimates. Ive read on a more windows centric forums the sp4 battery life varies from poor (4 hours) up to good ( 10 or so hours ).

The two factors mainly making me think hard about getting a MacBook is I have an iPhone and the continuity or whatever Apple calls it is appealing and the battery life is rated around 9-12 hours . From my experience Apple is usually spot on with the battery life estimates. Ive read on a more windows centric forums the sp4 battery life varies from poor (4 hours) up to good ( 10 or so hours ).

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Those are two compelling arguments. Battery life on the MacBook is typically much better and much more reliable. Having a device that goes 10 hours without charging, reliably, and drains almost nothing in sleep really changes how you use it. For your use case you might be able to go a couple of days between charging with a MacBook. Second, continuity is great - especially if you are a big imessage/text user. It's great to be able to respond to those from your keyboard that is sitting in front of you instead of having two switch to the phone and its sub-par typing experience (compared to a real keyboard).

Those are two compelling arguments. Battery life on the MacBook is typically much better and much more reliable. Having a device that goes 10 hours without charging, reliably, and drains almost nothing in sleep really changes how you use it. For your use case you might be able to go a couple of days between charging with a MacBook. Second, continuity is great - especially if you are a big imessage/text user. It's great to be able to respond to those from your keyboard that is sitting in front of you instead of having two switch to the phone and its sub-par typing experience (compared to a real keyboard).

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I have like 5 or so days to decide since Best buy is selling the base model for $1149 on sale and with the college discount I can get it $50 off. Probably go to best buy and try it out.

On a purely productivity standpoint for college the MacBook or surface pro 4?

Edit: forgot to mention I am a culinary major so it won't be used for anything major like photo editing or etc. Just word processing basically. I just want the pro for the retina display since the few times I checked out the air the display wasn't ideal

I have like 5 or so days to decide since Best buy is selling the base model for $1149 on sale and with the college discount I can get it $50 off. Probably go to best buy and try it out.

On a purely productivity standpoint for college the MacBook or surface pro 4?

Edit: forgot to mention I am a culinary major so it won't be used for anything major like photo editing or etc. Just word processing basically. I just want the pro for the retina display since the few times I checked out the air the display wasn't ideal

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It really depends how you feel about the stylus. If you want to be able to take freehand notes in OneNote, keep the SP4. If you don't anticipate doing that, get a laptop. The only point of having the Surface Pro is if you want to use the stylus.

My knowledge on Culinary is limited but based on the quick Google search, I would still opt for SP4. In a cooking environment (correct me if there) I think a productivity tablet as opposed to a full laptop will be a better match IMO.

People I know that do art, music, photography or graphic design swear by Mac's that's why I asked.

It really depends how you feel about the stylus. If you want to be able to take freehand notes in OneNote, keep the SP4. If you don't anticipate doing that, get a laptop. The only point of having the Surface Pro is if you want to use the stylus.

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I bought it with the intention of using it but I have been trying it out on one note and I don't feel it Ks accurate enough to use it to write my notes in hand. Perhaps it is because I am lefty or my hand writing is a bit fast for it to pick up.

My knowledge on Culinary is limited but based on the quick Google search, I would still opt for SP4. In a cooking environment (correct me if there) I think a productivity tablet as opposed to a full laptop will be a better match IMO.

People I know that do art, music, photography or graphic design swear by Mac's that's why I asked.

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Yeah I'm doing all the liberal arts stuff like math , English and science class this semester and have one more writing class after this semester coming up.

One question though how is watching Netflix and stuff on the screen ? I'll be using this device as a tablet replacement ( either one) since I am selling my iPad to finance part of this purchase.

Oh and thanks for these balance replies. If I wrote this in another Apple centric forum I would og gotten get the MacBook just because its Apple and not what is what they think is best for the OP.

I bought it with the intention of using it but I have been trying it out on one note and I don't feel it Ks accurate enough to use it to write my notes in hand. Perhaps it is because I am lefty or my hand writing is a bit fast for it to pick up.

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There is a learning curve to using the stylus, and no it's not quite as fast, but after having used a SP as digital paper on and off for several years now and daily for the last year, I just recently tried going back to paper for a day and realized how spoiled I am by the SP. Once adapted to the differences, digital note taking is way better.

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